It took him more than two hours to go up, but only about five minutes to come down.

(Announcer) “There’s the release, and there’s the applause. A successful ride.”

Courtesy “Red Bull Stratos”.

Austrian extreme athlete Felix Baumgartner was hauled aloft in a pressurized capsule by a 55-story helium balloon to an altitude of 24 miles!

Then, looking more like an astronaut than a skydiver, he leaped out of the door and into the stratosphere, free falling at a speed of at or near 690 miles-per-hour. He activated his parachute, right on cue, at 5,000 feet where he then drifted back down to the New Mexico desert, falling to his knees while raising his hands in triumph.